Concert, lecture to feature Byzantine chants for Passion Week

The vocal ensemble Psaltikon will perform “Six Days before the Passover: A Concert of Byzantine Chant for Passion Week” at the College of the Holy Cross at 8 p.m., Thursday, April 21 in Brooks Concert Hall. Psaltikon’s founder and director, Spyridon Antonopoulos, will give a preconcert lecture at 7 p.m. The events are free and open to the public.

Psaltikon’s mission is the preservation and dissemination of the musical heritage of Greece and the Balkans, including Byzantine chant of all periods. The ensemble will perform newly transcribed music from medieval manuscripts, well-known Greek Orthodox chants and traditional folk music commemorating Lazarus Saturday, Holy Friday and springtime. The ensemble will be accompanied by acclaimed international musicians from the Boston area.

Prior to the concert, Antonopoulos will lecture on theological, liturgical and musical differences between the psalmodic traditions of the Latin West and Greek East.

Antonopoulos is a graduate of Brown University and the New England Conservatory, and earned his Ph.D. in musicology from City University London in 2015. He is a regular member of Cappella Romana, with whom he has sung in concerts and festivals across Europe and the United States, and has spoken at dozens of international academic conferences. He is a singer on Stanford’s “Icons of Sound” project, as well as a singer and researcher for UCLA/USC’s “Bodies and Spirits: Soundscapes of Byzantium.” Both projects are multidisciplinary collaborations focusing on acoustics and the interplay of sound, space, and liturgy in the Middle Ages.

The concert and lecture are sponsored by the Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J. Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture.

View the schedule of upcoming events and watch lectures online at holycross.edu/mcfarlandcenter. Learn more about Psaltikon at psaltikon.org.

About the Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J. Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture: Established in 2001 and housed in Smith Hall, the McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture provides resources for faculty and course development, sponsors conferences and college-wide teaching events, hosts visiting fellows, and coordinates a number of campus lecture series. Rooted in the College's commitment to invite conversation about basic human questions, the Center welcomes persons of all faiths and seeks to foster dialogue that acknowledges and respects differences, providing a forum for intellectual exchange that is interreligious, interdisciplinary, intercultural, and international in scope. The Center also brings members of the Holy Cross community into conversation with the Greater Worcester community, the academic community, and the wider world to examine the role of faith and inquiry in higher education and in the larger culture.